Indian police firing tear gas stormed a New Delhi camp on Sunday to evict a mass protest against corruption by a famous yoga guru and thousands of his followers, sparking a melee that left 53 injured.

Opposition parties and anti-graft campaigners accused the government of resorting to heavy-handed tactics to crush the demonstration, which comes after a damaging series of corruption revelations at high levels of power.

Police also used batons in their early-hours raid on a vast tent in the centre of the capital where Swami Baba Ramdev, a television yoga star, had begun a hunger strike on Saturday.